In 1993, Sullivan joined the Washington, D.C. law firm of Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP, where he has practiced Supreme Court law.[2] He is currently a partner in Mayer Brown’s Washington DC office and "co-chair of the firm’s National Security practice". His firm biography continued:

He also has served as a senior adviser to four presidential campaigns ... [Sullivan] has focused his practice on the growing intersection of global trade/investment and US national security and foreign policies. He advises CEOs, general counsels, and other senior executives on US sanctions and export controls, international trade disputes and regulation, and foreign investment in the United States, the Middle East, Russia, and other countries. His clients include major oil and gas companies, consulting, accounting, and financial services firms, petrochemical companies, and manufacturers. He has represented these clients before executive departments and agencies of the US and foreign governments, as well as in litigation in the United States, where he has filed briefs and presented oral argument in courts across the country.

Sullivan's Dept. of Commerce portrait

The biography also discussed work on client business in Russia, Iran, Cuba and Iraq and "advising a multinational manufacturing company on security policies and risk issues in countries with a high threat of terrorism, violence, and political instability". In the Obama Administration, Sullivan was chairman of the US-Iraq Business Dialogue, "an advisory committee on economic relations between the two countries".[3]

In February 2004, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld appointed Sullivan as Deputy General Counsel of the United States Department of Defense. In this capacity, he was responsible for all litigation involving the department and for counsel on major criminal and congressional investigations. During his tenure, he was awarded the Secretary of Defense’s Medal for Exceptional Public Service.[2]

Sullivan then moved to the U.S. Department of Commerce, where he served as General Counsel. As the department’s chief legal officer and Designated Agency Ethics Official, Sullivan managed the work of over 400 lawyers in the 14 legal offices providing legal advice to all components of the department.[2]

Upon the resignation of Deputy Secretary David Sampson, Sullivan was assigned as Acting Deputy Secretary beginning on September 1, 2007. He was soon thereafter nominated by George W. Bush to serve in a permanent capacity, and was sworn in on March 14, 2008 after confirmation by the United States Senate. As the department’s chief operating officer, he managed a $6.8 billion budget and 38,000 employees in 13 operating units. He was also a member of President Bush's Management Council and a member of the Board of Directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.[2]

1.
United States Deputy Secretary of State
–
The Deputy Secretary of State of the United States is the principal deputy to the Secretary of State. If the Secretary of State resigns or dies, the Deputy Secretary of State becomes Acting Secretary of State until the President nominates, the position was created in 1972. Prior to July 13,1972, the Under Secretary of State had been the ranking officer of the Department of State. The position is vacant, pending a nomination by Donald Trump. Under Secretary for Political Affairs Thomas A. Shannon, Jr. currently serves as the acting Deputy Secretary, the State Department is the only federal Cabinet-level agency with two co-equal Deputy Secretaries

2.
Donald Trump
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Donald John Trump is the 45th and current President of the United States. Prior to entering politics he was a businessman and television personality, Trump was born and raised in Queens, New York City, and earned an economics degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He then took charge of The Trump Organization, the estate and construction firm founded by his paternal grandmother, which he ran for four. During his real career, Trump has built, renovated, and managed numerous office towers, hotels, casinos. Besides real estate, he started several ventures and has lent the use of his name for the branding of various products. He owned the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants from 1996 to 2015, and he hosted The Apprentice, as of 2017, Forbes listed him as the 544th wealthiest person in the world with a net worth of $3.5 billion. Trump first publicly expressed interest in running for office in 1987. He won two Reform Party presidential primaries in 2000, but withdrew his candidacy early on, in June 2015, he launched his campaign for the 2016 presidential election and quickly emerged as the front-runner among 17 candidates in the Republican primaries. His final opponents suspended their campaigns in May 2016, and in July he was nominated at the Republican National Convention along with Indiana governor Mike Pence as his running mate. His campaign received unprecedented media coverage and international attention, many of the statements he made at rallies, in interviews, or on social media were controversial or false. Trump won the election on November 8,2016, in a surprise victory against Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. His political positions have been described by scholars and commentators as populist, protectionist, Trump was born on June 14,1946 at the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, Queens, New York City. He was the fourth of five born to Frederick Christ Fred Trump. His siblings are Maryanne, Fred Jr. Elizabeth, and Robert, Trumps ancestors originated from the village of Kallstadt, Palatinate, Germany on his fathers side, and from the Outer Hebrides isles of Scotland on his mothers side. All his grandparents, and his mother, were born in Europe and his mothers grandfather was also christened Donald. On a visit to his village, he met Elisabeth Christ. He died from the flu pandemic of 1918 and Elizabeth incorporated the family real estate business, Elizabeth Trump and Son, which would later become The Trump Organization. Trumps father Fred was born in the Bronx, and worked with his mother since he was 15 as a real estate developer, primarily in the New York boroughs of Queens and he eventually built and sold thousands of houses, barracks and apartments

3.
Tony Blinken
–
Antony Tony John Blinken is the former United States Deputy Secretary of State and the former Deputy National Security Advisor for President Barack Obama. From 2009 to 2013 Blinken served as Deputy Assistant to the President, from 2002 to 2008 he served as the Democratic Staff Director for the U. S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. From 2001 to 2002 Blinken was a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic, during the Clinton Administration, Blinken served in the State Department and in senior positions on the National Security Council Staff. On November 7,2014, President Obama announced that he would nominate Blinken for the Deputy Secretary post, on December 16,2014 Blinken was confirmed as Deputy Secretary of State by the Senate by a vote of 55 to 38. He is now a Global Affairs Analyst for CNN, Blinken was born to Jewish parents, Judith and Donald Blinken. He attended Harvard University, where he edited the student newspaper. After earning his bachelors degree, Blinken reported for The New Republic and he earned his J. D. at Columbia Law School. After graduation, he practiced law in New York City and Paris, during the 1988 presidential campaign, Blinken became a Democratic partisan, working with his father in fundraisers for Michael Dukakis. Blinken has held senior foreign policy positions in two administrations over two decades and he served on the United States National Security Council staff at the White House from 1994 to 2001. From 1994 through 1998 Blinken was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Strategic Planning, from 1999 to 2001 he was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European and Canadian Affairs. In 2002 Blinken was appointed Staff Director for the U. S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and he was also a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In 2008, Blinken worked for the campaign of Senator Joseph Biden. From 2009 to 2013 he served as Deputy Assistant to the President, in this position he also helped craft U. S. policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Iranian nuclear program. He is the author of Ally Versus Ally, America, Europe, Blinken, who is Jewish, married Evan Ryan in a bi-denominational ceremony officiated by a rabbi and priest at Holy Trinity Catholic Church. Media related to Tony Blinken at Wikimedia Commons Official bio Appearances on C-SPAN Works by or about Antony J. Blinken in libraries

4.
Heather Higginbottom
–
Heather Anne Higginbottom is a diplomat who was the U. S. Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources from 2013 to 2017. She previously served as Counselor of the United States Department of State and prior to that had served as Deputy Director of the federal Office of Management, on October 20,2011, the United States Senate voted 64–36 to confirm her nomination to be Deputy Director of the OMB. Higginbottom attended Chenango Valley High School in Binghamton, New York and she received her Master of Public Policy degree from the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration at George Washington University. She obtained her degree from the University of Rochester. Higginbottom began her government service in 1999, when she joined the office of then Senator John Kerry as Legislative Assistant. During her years in Senator Kerry’s staff, she handled a wide array of domestic and foreign policy issues and she also served as the Deputy National Policy Director for the Kerry-Edwards Presidential Campaign. After the 2004 election, Higginbottom founded and served as Executive Director of the American Security Project and she began her career with the national non-profit organization Communities In Schools. On November 24,2008, it was announced that Higginbottom was appointed the Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council in the administration of President Barack Obama. On January 7,2011, President Obama nominated Higginbottom to the position of Deputy Director of the Office of Management, after John Kerry was confirmed to be United States Secretary of State in 2013, he hired Higginbottom as Counselor. In 2013, Obama nominated Higginbottom to serve as Deputy Secretary of State for Management, on November 14,2013, her nomination was reported to the full U. S. Senate by the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. On December 13,2013, the Senate confirmed her in a 74–17 vote, appearances on C-SPAN Profile of Heather Higginbottom, David McKay Wilson, Rochester Review, January–February 2009

5.
United States Deputy Secretary of Commerce
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The Deputy Secretary of Commerce is a high-ranking position within the U. S. Department of Commerce. It was created on December 13,1979, when President Jimmy Carter sent a letter to the U. S. Senate and nominated Luther H. Hodges, in that capacity, the Deputy Secretary is also a member of the President’s Management Council. In addition, the Deputy Secretary acts as Secretary if the Secretary has died, resigned, or is unable to perform the functions. Rebecca M. Blank was the Deputy Secretary of Commerce until she stepped down on May 31,2013 and she was confirmed by unanimous consent by the U. S. Senate in March 2012. She had been serving as Acting Deputy Secretary since November 18,2010 and she replaced Dennis F. Hightower, who was Deputy Secretary of Commerce from August 2009 to August 2010. Patrick D. Gallagher was appointed Acting Deputy Secretary on June 1,2013, bruce H. Andrews was confirmed as the next Deputy Secretary on July 24,2014

6.
George W. Bush
–
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He was also the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000 and he is the eldest son of Barbara and George H. W. Bush. After graduating from Yale University in 1968 and Harvard Business School in 1975, Bush married Laura Welch in 1977 and ran unsuccessfully for the House of Representatives shortly thereafter. He later co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team before defeating Ann Richards in the 1994 Texas gubernatorial election and he is the second president to assume the nations highest office after his father, following the lead of John Quincy Adams. He is also a brother of Jeb Bush, a former Governor of Florida who was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2016 presidential election, the September 11 terrorist attacks occurred eight months into Bushs first term as president. Bush responded with what became known as the Bush Doctrine, launching a War on Terror, a military campaign that included the war in Afghanistan in 2001. He also promoted policies on the economy, health care, education, Social Security reform and his tenure included national debates on immigration, Social Security, electronic surveillance, and torture. In the 2004 Presidential race, Bush defeated Democratic Senator John Kerry in another close election. After his re-election, Bush received increasingly heated criticism from across the spectrum for his handling of the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina. Amid this criticism, the Democratic Party regained control of Congress in the 2006 elections, Bush left office in 2009, returning to Texas where he purchased a home in Crawford. He wrote a memoir, Decision Points and his presidential library was opened in 2013. His presidency has been ranked among the worst in historians polls published in the late 2000s and 2010s. George Walker Bush was born on July 6,1946, at Grace-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut, as the first child of George Herbert Walker Bush and his wife, the former Barbara Pierce. He was raised in Midland and Houston, Texas, with four siblings, Jeb, Neil, Marvin, another younger sister, Robin, died from leukemia at the age of three in 1953. His grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a U. S and his father, George H. W. Bush, was Ronald Reagans Vice President from 1981 to 1989 and the 41st U. S. President from 1989 to 1993. Bush has English and some German ancestry, along with more distant Dutch, Welsh, Irish, French, Bush attended public schools in Midland, Texas, until the family moved to Houston after he had completed seventh grade. He then spent two years at The Kinkaid School, a school in Houston. Bush attended high school at Phillips Academy, a school in Andover, Massachusetts

7.
David A. Sampson
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David Allan Sampson is the president and CEO of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. He was born in Washington, Indiana and he joined PCI in September 2007. He was previously United States Deputy Secretary of Commerce and took the oath of office on July 27,2005, as Deputy Secretary he was the Department of Commerces chief operating officer and managed a US$6.5 billion budget and 38,000 employees in the 13 operating units. Sampson also served on President George W. Bushs management council and was a member of the Board of Directors for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. Sampson is a B. A. graduate of Lipscomb University and holds the degree of M. Th. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, on graduation from Lipscomb and while attending NOBTS, he served as minister of the Westchurch Church of Christ in Hammond, Louisiana. He was the first individual to receive the D. Min. degree at Abilene Christian University, during his studies in Abilene he was minister of the Park Row Church of Christ in Arlington, Texas, prior to selection as chief executive officer of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce. He completed the Program for Senior Executives at Harvard Universitys John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1999, Sampson and his family reside in Northern Virginia. As president & CEO of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, as president of PCI and its affiliates, Sampson oversees 240 staff and a $40 million budget. He leads and manages one of the most diverse groups in the nation. Sampson advocates on behalf of insurer and consumer interests on issues ranging from natural catastrophe funding, prior to joining PCI on September 4,2007, Sampson served in two presidential-appointed and Senate-confirmed positions. Most recently, he was the deputy secretary of the U. S. Department of Commerce, ISS works with more than 450 property casualty companies of all sizes that report more than $900 billion in annual premiums. Board of Directors of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Member of the U. S

8.
Dennis Hightower
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He spent his formative years in Washington, D. C. and graduated from McKinley High School in 1958, at age 16, as class president. He entered Howard University that same year and graduated in 1962, at age 20, while at Howard, he was a student leader, a student athlete, and was the top graduating senior and a Distinguished Military Graduate of the Army ROTC program. Later, he was trained in counterintelligence and field operations intelligence, Hightower served in Vietnam with the 199th Light Infantry Brigade, and was promoted to the rank of Major at age 27. During his eight-year military career, he was awarded decorations for meritorious achievement. In addition, he holds the Combat Infantryman Badge, Expert Infantryman Badge, Ranger Tab, Hightower resigned his commission in June 1970, after early selection to attend the United States Army Command and General Staff College. After his military service, Hightower joined Xerox, and two later, he was awarded a fellowship to study at Harvard Business School, from which he earned his MBA in 1974. When Hightower retired from The Walt Disney Company, he was among the six highest-ranking African American executives in corporate America and he also taught in senior executive programs in South Africa and the Middle East. From 2000 to 2001, Hightower was CEO of Europe Online Networks and he returned to the United States to be treated for cancer. His travels for business and other purposes have taken him to 91 countries and his achievements in business have resulted in many awards bestowed by academic, business and civic organizations throughout the years. Hightower was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 7,2009 to replace John J. Sullivan and he was a member of the Presidents Management Council, the committee on foreign investment in the U. S. He resigned on August 27,2010, to return to the private sector, dennis Hightower Profile Page on BigSpeak. com

9.
United States Department of Commerce
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The United States Department of Commerce is the Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with promoting economic growth. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for business and government decision-making and this organizations main purpose is to create jobs, promote economic growth, encourage sustainable development and improve standards of living for all Americans. The Department of Commerce headquarters is the Herbert C. Hoover Building in Washington, the department was originally created as the United States Department of Commerce and Labor on February 14,1903. It was subsequently renamed the Department of Commerce on March 4,1913, as the bureaus, in 1940, the Weather Bureau was transferred from the Agriculture Department, and the Civil Aeronautics Authority was merged into the department. In 1949, the Public Roads Administration was added to the department due to the dissolution of the Federal Works Agency, in 1958, the independent Federal Aviation Agency was created and the Civil Aeronautics Authority was abolished. In 1966, the Bureau of Public Roads was transferred to the newly created Department of Transportation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was created on October 3,1970.6 billion. The budget authorization is broken down as follows, Proposals to reorganize the Department go back many decades, the Economic Development Administration would be completely eliminated. The Obama administration projects that the reorganization would save $3 billion, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would be transferred from the Department of Commerce into the Department of the Interior. Later that year, shortly before the 2012 presidential election, Obama invoked the idea of a secretary of business in reference to the plan. The reorganization was part of a proposal which would grant the President the authority to propose mergers of federal agencies. This ability had existed from the Great Depression until the Reagan presidency, the Obama administration plan faced criticism for some of its elements. However, environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council feared that the reorganization could distract the agency from its mission of protecting the nations oceans, the plan was reiterated in the Obama administrations FY2016 budget proposal that was released in February 2015

10.
Theodore Kassinger
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He is a native of Atlanta, Georgia. While serving as Deputy Secretary of Commerce, Kassinger managed a $6.5 billion annual budget, and 38,000 employees and he was also a keynote speaker at the 2005 U. S. - China Trade, Opportunities and Challenges Conference, prior to his government service, Kassinger was a partner at Vinson & Elkins, a multinational law firm, based in Houston, Texas. He practised in the areas of trade and business law. In 2009, he was reported to be an international attorney and partner in the Washington DC office of OMelveny & Myers. In 2013, Kassinger was a signatory to an amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court of the United States in support of same-sex marriage during the Hollingsworth v. Perry case. Kassinger has been named a Top National Security Lawyer in DC by the Washingtonian Magazine annually, Vinson & Elkins United States Deputy Secretary of Commerce O’Melveny & Myers

11.
Boston, Massachusetts
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Boston is the capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Boston is also the seat of Suffolk County, although the county government was disbanded on July 1,1999. The city proper covers 48 square miles with a population of 667,137 in 2015, making it the largest city in New England. Alternately, as a Combined Statistical Area, this wider commuting region is home to some 8.1 million people, One of the oldest cities in the United States, Boston was founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers from England. It was the scene of several key events of the American Revolution, such as the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston. Upon U. S. independence from Great Britain, it continued to be an important port and manufacturing hub as well as a center for education, through land reclamation and municipal annexation, Boston has expanded beyond the original peninsula. Its rich history attracts many tourists, with Faneuil Hall alone drawing over 20 million visitors per year, Bostons many firsts include the United States first public school, Boston Latin School, first subway system, the Tremont Street Subway, and first public park, Boston Common. Bostons economic base also includes finance, professional and business services, biotechnology, information technology, the city has one of the highest costs of living in the United States as it has undergone gentrification, though it remains high on world livability rankings. Bostons early European settlers had first called the area Trimountaine but later renamed it Boston after Boston, Lincolnshire, England, the renaming on September 7,1630 was by Puritan colonists from England who had moved over from Charlestown earlier that year in quest of fresh water. Their settlement was limited to the Shawmut Peninsula, at that time surrounded by the Massachusetts Bay and Charles River. The peninsula is thought to have been inhabited as early as 5000 BC, in 1629, the Massachusetts Bay Colonys first governor John Winthrop led the signing of the Cambridge Agreement, a key founding document of the city. Puritan ethics and their focus on education influenced its early history, over the next 130 years, the city participated in four French and Indian Wars, until the British defeated the French and their Indian allies in North America. Boston was the largest town in British America until Philadelphia grew larger in the mid-18th century, Bostons harbor activity was significantly curtailed by the Embargo Act of 1807 and the War of 1812. Foreign trade returned after these hostilities, but Bostons merchants had found alternatives for their investments in the interim. Manufacturing became an important component of the economy, and the citys industrial manufacturing overtook international trade in economic importance by the mid-19th century. Boston remained one of the nations largest manufacturing centers until the early 20th century, a network of small rivers bordering the city and connecting it to the surrounding region facilitated shipment of goods and led to a proliferation of mills and factories. Later, a network of railroads furthered the regions industry. Boston was a port of the Atlantic triangular slave trade in the New England colonies

12.
Massachusetts
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It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island to the south, New Hampshire and Vermont to the north, and New York to the west. The state is named for the Massachusett tribe, which inhabited the area. The capital of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England is Boston, over 80% of Massachusetts population lives in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, a region influential upon American history, academia, and industry. Originally dependent on agriculture, fishing and trade, Massachusetts was transformed into a manufacturing center during the Industrial Revolution, during the 20th century, Massachusetts economy shifted from manufacturing to services. Modern Massachusetts is a leader in biotechnology, engineering, higher education, finance. Plymouth was the site of the first colony in New England, founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims, in 1692, the town of Salem and surrounding areas experienced one of Americas most infamous cases of mass hysteria, the Salem witch trials. In 1777, General Henry Knox founded the Springfield Armory, which during the Industrial Revolution catalyzed numerous important technological advances, in 1786, Shays Rebellion, a populist revolt led by disaffected American Revolutionary War veterans, influenced the United States Constitutional Convention. In the 18th century, the Protestant First Great Awakening, which swept the Atlantic World, in the late 18th century, Boston became known as the Cradle of Liberty for the agitation there that led to the American Revolution. The entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts has played a commercial and cultural role in the history of the United States. Before the American Civil War, Massachusetts was a center for the abolitionist, temperance, in the late 19th century, the sports of basketball and volleyball were invented in the western Massachusetts cities of Springfield and Holyoke, respectively. Many prominent American political dynasties have hailed from the state, including the Adams, both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also in Cambridge, have been ranked among the most highly regarded academic institutions in the world. Massachusetts public school students place among the top nations in the world in academic performance, the official name of the state is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. While this designation is part of the official name, it has no practical implications. Massachusetts has the position and powers within the United States as other states. Massachusetts was originally inhabited by tribes of the Algonquian language family such as the Wampanoag, Narragansett, Nipmuc, Pocomtuc, Mahican, and Massachusett. While cultivation of crops like squash and corn supplemented their diets, villages consisted of lodges called wigwams as well as longhouses, and tribes were led by male or female elders known as sachems. Between 1617 and 1619, smallpox killed approximately 90% of the Massachusetts Bay Native Americans, the first English settlers in Massachusetts, the Pilgrims, arrived via the Mayflower at Plymouth in 1620, and developed friendly relations with the native Wampanoag people. This was the second successful permanent English colony in the part of North America that later became the United States, the event known as the First Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World which lasted for three days

13.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci

14.
Republican Party (United States)
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The Republican Party, commonly referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, the other being its historic rival, the Democratic Party. The party is named after republicanism, the dominant value during the American Revolution, there have been 19 Republican presidents, the most from any one party. The Republican Partys current ideology is American conservatism, which contrasts with the Democrats more progressive platform, further, its platform involves support for free market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defense, deregulation, and restrictions on labor unions. In addition to advocating for economic policies, the Republican Party is socially conservative. As of 2017, the GOP is documented as being at its strongest position politically since 1928, in addition to holding the Presidency, the Republicans control the 115th United States Congress, having majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a majority of governorships and state legislatures, the main cause was opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise by which slavery was kept out of Kansas. The Northern Republicans saw the expansion of slavery as a great evil, the first public meeting of the general anti-Nebraska movement where the name Republican was suggested for a new anti-slavery party was held on March 20,1854, in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin. The name was chosen to pay homage to Thomas Jeffersons Republican Party. The first official party convention was held on July 6,1854, in Jackson and it oversaw the preserving of the union, the end of slavery, and the provision of equal rights to all men in the American Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861–1877. The Republicans initial base was in the Northeast and the upper Midwest, with the realignment of parties and voters in the Third Party System, the strong run of John C. Fremont in the 1856 United States presidential election demonstrated it dominated most northern states, early Republican ideology was reflected in the 1856 slogan free labor, free land, free men, which had been coined by Salmon P. Chase, a Senator from Ohio. Free labor referred to the Republican opposition to labor and belief in independent artisans. Free land referred to Republican opposition to the system whereby slaveowners could buy up all the good farm land. The Party strove to contain the expansion of slavery, which would cause the collapse of the slave power, Lincoln, representing the fast-growing western states, won the Republican nomination in 1860 and subsequently won the presidency. The party took on the mission of preserving the Union, and destroying slavery during the American Civil War, in the election of 1864, it united with War Democrats to nominate Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket. The partys success created factionalism within the party in the 1870s and those who felt that Reconstruction had been accomplished and was continued mostly to promote the large-scale corruption tolerated by President Ulysses S. Grant ran Horace Greeley for the presidency. The Stalwarts defended Grant and the system, the Half-Breeds led by Chester A. Arthur pushed for reform of the civil service in 1883. The Republicans supported the pietistic Protestants who demanded Prohibition, nevertheless, by 1890 the Republicans had agreed to the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Interstate Commerce Commission in response to complaints from owners of small businesses and farmers

15.
Brown University
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Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine Colonial Colleges established before the American Revolution. At its foundation, Brown was the first college in the United States to accept students regardless of their religious affiliation and its engineering program was established in 1847 and was the first in the Ivy League. It was one of the early doctoral-granting U. S. institutions in the late 19th century, adding master, Browns New Curriculum is sometimes referred to in education theory as the Brown Curriculum and was adopted by faculty vote in 1969 after a period of student lobbying. In 1971, Browns coordinate womens institution Pembroke College was fully merged into the university, Pembroke Campus now operates as a place for dorms and classrooms. Undergraduate admissions is very selective, with a rate of 8.3 percent for the class of 2021. The University comprises The College, the Graduate School, Alpert Medical School, the School of Engineering, the School of Public Health, and the School of Professional Studies. The Brown/RISD Dual Degree Program, offered in conjunction with the Rhode Island School of Design, is a course that awards degrees from both institutions. Browns main campus is located in the College Hill Historic District in the city of Providence, the Universitys neighborhood is a federally listed architectural district with a dense concentration of Colonial-era buildings. On the western edge of the campus, Benefit Street contains one of the finest cohesive collections of restored seventeenth-, Browns faculty and alumni include eight Nobel Prize laureates, five National Humanities Medalists, and ten National Medal of Science laureates. Other notable alumni include eight billionaire graduates, a U. S. Supreme Court Chief Justice, to erect a public Building or Buildings for the boarding of the youth & the Residence of the Professors. Stiles and Ellery were co-authors of the Charter of the College two years later, there is further documentary evidence that Stiles was making plans for a college in 1762. On January 20, Chauncey Whittelsey, pastor of the First Church of New Haven, answered a letter from Stiles, should you make any Progress in the Affair of a Colledge, I should be glad to hear of it, I heartily wish you Success therein. Isaac Backus was the historian of the New England Baptists and an inaugural Trustee of Brown, Mr. James Manning, who took his first degree in New-Jersey college in September,1762, was esteemed a suitable leader in this important work. Manning arrived at Newport in July 1763 and was introduced to Stiles, stiless first draft was read to the General Assembly in August 1763 and rejected by Baptist members who worried that the College Board of Fellows would under-represent the Baptists. A revised Charter written by Stiles and Ellery was adopted by the Assembly on March 3,1764, in September 1764, the inaugural meeting of the College Corporation was held at Newport. Governor Stephen Hopkins was chosen chancellor, former and future governor Samuel Ward was vice chancellor, John Tillinghast treasurer, the Charter stipulated that the Board of Trustees be composed of 22 Baptists, five Quakers, five Episcopalians, and four Congregationalists. Of the 12 Fellows, eight should be Baptists—including the College president—and the rest indifferently of any or all Denominations, the Charter was not the grant of King George III, as is sometimes supposed, but rather an Act of the colonial General Assembly. In two particulars, the Charter may be said to be a uniquely progressive document, the oft-repeated statement is inaccurate that Browns Charter alone prohibited a religious test for College membership, other college charters were also liberal in that particular

16.
Bachelor of Arts
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A Bachelor of Arts is a bachelors degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both. Bachelor of Arts degree programs take three to four years depending on the country, academic institution, and specific specializations, majors or minors. The word baccalaureus or baccalarium should not be confused with baccalaureatus, degree diplomas generally are printed on high-quality paper or parchment, individual institutions set the preferred abbreviation for their degrees. In Pakistan, the Bachelor of Arts degree can also be attained within two years as an external degree, in colleges and universities in Australia, New Zealand, Nepal and South Africa, the BA degree can be taken over three years of full-time study. Unlike in other countries, students do not receive a grade for their Bachelor of Arts degree with varying levels of honours. Qualified students may be admitted, after they have achieved their Bachelors program with an overall grade point average. Thus, to achieve a Bachelor Honours degree, a postgraduate year. A student who holds a Honours degree is eligible for entry to either a Doctorate or a very high research Master´s degree program. Education in Canada is controlled by the Provinces and can be different depending on the province in Canada. Canadian universities typically offer a 3-year Bachelor of Arts degrees, in many universities and colleges, Bachelor of Arts degrees are differentiated either as Bachelors of Arts or as honours Bachelor of Arts degree. The honours degrees are designated with the abbreviation in brackets of. It should not be confused with the consecutive Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours, Latin Baccalaureatus in Artibus Cum Honore, BA hon. de jure without brackets and with a dot. It is a degree, which is considered to be the equivalent of a corresponding maîtrise degree under the French influenced system. Going back in history, a three-year Bachelor of Arts degree was called a pass degree or general degree. Students may be required to undertake a long high-quality research empirical thesis combined with a selection of courses from the relevant field of studies. The consecutive B. cum Honore degree is essential if students ultimate goal is to study towards a two- or three-year very high research masters´ degree qualification. A student holding a Baccalaureatus Cum Honore degree also may choose to complete a Doctor of Philosophy program without the requirement to first complete a masters degree, over the years, in some universities certain Baccalaureatus cum Honore programs have been changed to corresponding master´s degrees. In general, in all four countries, the B. A. degree is the standard required for entry into a masters programme, in science, a BA hons degree is generally a prerequisite for entrance to a Ph. D program or a very-high-research-activity master´s programme

17.
Columbia University
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Columbia University is a private Ivy League research university in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It was established in 1754 as Kings College by royal charter of George II of Great Britain, after the American Revolutionary War, Kings College briefly became a state entity, and was renamed Columbia College in 1784. Columbia is one of the fourteen founding members of the Association of American Universities and was the first school in the United States to grant the M. D. degree. The university also has global research outposts in Amman, Beijing, Istanbul, Paris, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, Asunción, Columbia administers annually the Pulitzer Prize. Additionally,100 Nobel laureates have been affiliated with Columbia as students, researchers, faculty, Columbia is second only to Harvard University in the number of Nobel Prize-winning affiliates, with over 100 recipients of the award as of 2016. In 1746 an act was passed by the assembly of New York to raise funds for the foundation of a new college. Classes were initially held in July 1754 and were presided over by the colleges first president, Dr. Johnson was the only instructor of the colleges first class, which consisted of a mere eight students. Instruction was held in a new schoolhouse adjoining Trinity Church, located on what is now lower Broadway in Manhattan, in 1763, Dr. Johnson was succeeded in the presidency by Myles Cooper, a graduate of The Queens College, Oxford, and an ardent Tory. In the charged political climate of the American Revolution, his opponent in discussions at the college was an undergraduate of the class of 1777. The suspension continued through the occupation of New York City by British troops until their departure in 1783. The colleges library was looted and its sole building requisitioned for use as a hospital first by American. Loyalists were forced to abandon their Kings College in New York, the Loyalists, led by Bishop Charles Inglis fled to Windsor, Nova Scotia, where they founded Kings Collegiate School. After the Revolution, the college turned to the State of New York in order to restore its vitality, the Legislature agreed to assist the college, and on May 1,1784, it passed an Act for granting certain privileges to the College heretofore called Kings College. The Regents finally became aware of the colleges defective constitution in February 1787 and appointed a revision committee, in April of that same year, a new charter was adopted for the college, still in use today, granting power to a private board of 24 Trustees. On May 21,1787, William Samuel Johnson, the son of Dr. Samuel Johnson, was unanimously elected President of Columbia College, prior to serving at the university, Johnson had participated in the First Continental Congress and been chosen as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. The colleges enrollment, structure, and academics stagnated for the majority of the 19th century, with many of the college presidents doing little to change the way that the college functioned. In 1857, the college moved from the Kings College campus at Park Place to a primarily Gothic Revival campus on 49th Street and Madison Avenue, during the last half of the 19th century, under the leadership of President F. A. P. Barnard, the institution assumed the shape of a modern university

18.
Juris Doctor
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The Juris Doctor degree, also known as the Doctor of Jurisprudence degree, is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. It is earned by completing law school in Australia, Canada and the United States and it has the academic standing of a second-entry, professional baccalaureate degree in Canada, a masters degree in Australia and a professional doctorate in the United States. The degree was first awarded in the United States in the early 20th century and was created as a version of the old European doctor of law degree. Originating from the 19th century Harvard movement for the study of law. It involves a program in most jurisdictions. To be authorized to practice law in the courts of a state in the United States. Lawyers must, however, be admitted to the bar of the court before they are authorized to practice in that court. Admission to the bar of a district court includes admission to the bar of the related bankruptcy court. In the United States, the doctorate in law may be conferred in Latin or in English, as Juris Doctor and at some law schools Doctor of Law. Juris Doctor literally means Teacher of Law, while the Latin for Doctor of Jurisprudence—Jurisprudentiae Doctor—literally means Teacher of Legal Knowledge, the J. D. is not to be confused with Doctor of Laws or Legum Doctor. In institutions where the latter can be earned, e. g. D, the LL. D. is invariably an honorary degree in the United States. The first university in Europe, the University of Bologna, was founded as a school of law by four famous legal scholars in the 11th century who were students of the school in that city. This served as the model for law schools of the Middle Ages. While Bologna granted only doctorates, preparatory degrees were introduced in Paris, the nature of the J. D. can be better understood by a review of the context of the history of legal education in England. The teaching of law at Cambridge and Oxford Universities was mainly for philosophical or scholarly purposes, the universities taught only civil and canon law but not the common law that applied in most jurisdictions. The original method of education at the Inns of Court was a mix of moot court-like practice and lecture, by the fifteenth century, the Inns functioned like a university akin to the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, though very specialized in purpose. With the frequent absence of parties to suits during the Crusades, the importance of the role grew tremendously. The apprenticeship program for solicitors thus emerged, structured and governed by the rules as the apprenticeship programs for the trades

19.
Boston
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Boston is the capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Boston is also the seat of Suffolk County, although the county government was disbanded on July 1,1999. The city proper covers 48 square miles with a population of 667,137 in 2015, making it the largest city in New England. Alternately, as a Combined Statistical Area, this wider commuting region is home to some 8.1 million people, One of the oldest cities in the United States, Boston was founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers from England. It was the scene of several key events of the American Revolution, such as the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston. Upon U. S. independence from Great Britain, it continued to be an important port and manufacturing hub as well as a center for education, through land reclamation and municipal annexation, Boston has expanded beyond the original peninsula. Its rich history attracts many tourists, with Faneuil Hall alone drawing over 20 million visitors per year, Bostons many firsts include the United States first public school, Boston Latin School, first subway system, the Tremont Street Subway, and first public park, Boston Common. Bostons economic base also includes finance, professional and business services, biotechnology, information technology, the city has one of the highest costs of living in the United States as it has undergone gentrification, though it remains high on world livability rankings. Bostons early European settlers had first called the area Trimountaine but later renamed it Boston after Boston, Lincolnshire, England, the renaming on September 7,1630 was by Puritan colonists from England who had moved over from Charlestown earlier that year in quest of fresh water. Their settlement was limited to the Shawmut Peninsula, at that time surrounded by the Massachusetts Bay and Charles River. The peninsula is thought to have been inhabited as early as 5000 BC, in 1629, the Massachusetts Bay Colonys first governor John Winthrop led the signing of the Cambridge Agreement, a key founding document of the city. Puritan ethics and their focus on education influenced its early history, over the next 130 years, the city participated in four French and Indian Wars, until the British defeated the French and their Indian allies in North America. Boston was the largest town in British America until Philadelphia grew larger in the mid-18th century, Bostons harbor activity was significantly curtailed by the Embargo Act of 1807 and the War of 1812. Foreign trade returned after these hostilities, but Bostons merchants had found alternatives for their investments in the interim. Manufacturing became an important component of the economy, and the citys industrial manufacturing overtook international trade in economic importance by the mid-19th century. Boston remained one of the nations largest manufacturing centers until the early 20th century, a network of small rivers bordering the city and connecting it to the surrounding region facilitated shipment of goods and led to a proliferation of mills and factories. Later, a network of railroads furthered the regions industry. Boston was a port of the Atlantic triangular slave trade in the New England colonies

20.
Xaverian Brothers High School
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Xaverian Brothers High School, founded in 1963 by the Xaverian Brothers, is a private, Catholic secondary school for boys in grades 7-12 on a 33-acre campus in Westwood, Massachusetts. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, Xaverian is sponsored by the Xaverian Brothers religious order, and offers a rigorous college preparatory program. The school attracts students from more than 60 communities in eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island and is well-recognized for its highly educated faculty, academic resources and athletics. The Xaverian Brothers established XBHS in its current location in Westwood, Massachusetts in 1963 with the support of Cardinal Cushing, the land that the school stands on today was originally part of the Forbes family estate. The late philanthropist Rocco Zoppo was instrumental in arranging for the Brothers to receive the land, the first day of school at XBHS was September 5,1963 with 251 students, all ninth graders, enrolling. These freshmen will become Xaverians first graduating class, the Class of 1967, including Richard Czaja, Xaverian has had a number of high-profile entertainment acts perform at the school. The J. Geils Band and The Cars as the band performed a concert at a Xaverian dance on March 13,1978. The Blue Öyster Cult made a stop at Xaverian during their tour on October 23,1980. According to Steven Tylers autobiography, Aerosmith performed at Xaverian, chuck Berry, MC5 and Sha Na Na also performed in the high school gym during the 1980s. Finally, Jay Leno performed in Xaverians Gymnasium on May 4,1991, as of the Fall 2015, the school has secured $18.5 million in donations. On October 20,2014, the school dedicated a brand new 32,500 square-foot Scholastic, the state-of-the-art facilities include a large gymnasium with a three-court gym and will hold large school-wide functions as well as everyday co-curricular activities for sports and clubs. The new space includes a large lobby with indoor concessions, coaches’ offices and training facilities, a fitness center, a meeting room. In September 2015, XBHS dedicated the new wing which added 15,000 square feet of learning space including two labs and five classrooms for the schools science and engineering programs. Xaverian is sponsored by the Congregation of the Brothers of St. Francis Xavier, known commonly as the Xaverian Brothers. The Xaverian Brothers are a consecrated lay Catholic order of Brothers who strive to fulfill the aspirations of its founder, Theodore James Ryken. Currently serves as Xaverians fifth headmaster and continues the Xaverian Brothers tradition at the school. ”XBHS is a Catholic college preparatory school for boys in grades 7-12, the school is a Xaverian Brothers Sponsored School that enrolls 880 students from more than 60 different communities. The primary objectives of a Xaverian education are to prepare students to meet the demands of higher education, to contribute to society, Xaverian is known for its highly educated staff of which over 95% hold graduate degrees from some of todays most competitive colleges. Every classroom has a Smart Board, and teachers have the ability to utilize five different computer labs that are available to meet with classes, in 2012 the school instituted a technology initiative, opening its Wi-Fi access to all students and beginning a Bring Your Own Device program

21.
Columbia Law School
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Columbia Law School is a professional graduate school of Columbia University, a member of the Ivy League. It is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked in the top five by U. S. News. Columbia is especially known for its strength in corporate law. Columbia Law School was founded in 1858 as the Columbia College Law School and was known for its legal scholarship dating back to the 18th century. Cabinet members and Presidential advisers, U. S. Senators, Representatives, and Governors, according to Columbia Law Schools 2013 ABA-required disclosures, 95% of the Class of 2013 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation. The law school was ranked #1 of all law schools nation-wide by the National Law Journal in terms of sending the highest percentage of 2015 graduates to the largest 100 law firms in the US, the teaching of law at Columbia reaches back to the 18th century. Columbia College appointed its first professor of law, James Kent, the lectures of Chancellor Kent in the course of four years had developed into the first two volumes of his Commentaries, the second volume being published November 1827. Kent did not, however, succeed in establishing a law school or department in the College, thus, the formal instruction of law as a course of study did not commence until the middle of the 19th century. The Columbia College Law School, as it was officially called, was founded in 1858. The first law school building was a Gothic Revival structure located on Columbias Madison Avenue campus, thereafter, the college became Columbia University and moved north to the neighborhood of Morningside Heights. As Columbia Law Professor Theodore Dwight observed, at its founding the demand for a course of study in law was still speculative. No institution resembling a law school had existed in New York. Legal education was, however, at a low ebb. The clerks in the law offices were left almost wholly to themselves, frequently they were not even acquainted with the lawyers with whom, by a convenient fiction, they were supposed to be studying. In general, the examinations were purely perfunctory, a politician of influence was not readily turned away. Few studied law as a science, many followed it as a trade or as a convenient ladder whereby to rise in a political career, indeed, Columbia Law School was one of the few law schools established in the United States before the Civil War. Jay was fortunate to have attentive supervision because the quality and time of learning the law varied greatly within the profession, the original course of study to obtain a degree consisted of just two years, rather than the modern standard of three. The first lecture in the Law School was delivered on Monday, Nov 1,1858, by Mr. Dwight and it was an introductory lecture, afterwards printed

22.
John Minor Wisdom
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At that time, the Fifth Circuit included not only Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, but also Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and the Panama Canal Zone. John Minor Wisdom was born on May 17,1905, in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1925, he received an Artium Baccalaureus degree from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. In 1929, he received a Bachelor of Laws degree from Tulane University Law School, from 1947 to 1972 John Minor Wisdom lived at Brevard-Rice House,1239 First Street, in New Orleans Garden District. He was a United States Army Lieutenant Colonel from 1942 to 1946 and he was in private practice of law in New Orleans from 1929 to 1957. He was an Adjunct professor of law, Tulane University, from 1938 to 1957, as a young man, he was a Democrat, but he left that party in reaction to what he perceived as the corrupt administration of Governor Huey Pierce Long, Jr. As the Republican National Committeeman from Louisiana, Wisdom was instrumental in securing the nomination of Dwight D. Eisenhower at the 1952 Republican National Convention in Chicago. Wisdom was also credited for helping Eisenhower to win Louisiana in the 1956 general election, Eisenhower appointed Wisdom to the Fifth Circuit bench in 1957 in what was seen as a reward for his services. Wisdom was nominated by President Eisenhower on March 14,1957 and he was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 26,1957, and received his commission on June 27,1957. He assumed senior status on January 15,1977, but continued to hear cases until his death in 1999 and he was a member of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation from its creation in 1968 and was the Panel’s chairman from 1975 until 1978. President Bill Clinton awarded Wisdom the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1993, on May 25,1994, the Fifth Circuits headquarters in New Orleans was renamed the John Minor Wisdom U. S. Court of Appeals Building. Upon his death, he left all of his writings, papers, and a variety of personal effects, to Tulane Law School. He also left a collection of his personal Mardi Gras memorabilia to the University of New Orleans. He is one of the subjects of the book Unlikely Heroes by Jack Bass and his former law clerks include U. S. Agrawal, dean of the University of Iowa College of Law, the Constitution is both color blind and color conscious. To avoid conflict with the equal protection clause, a classification that denies a benefit, causes harm, in that sense the Constitution is color blind. But the Constitution is color conscious to prevent discrimination being perpetuated, the criterion is the relevancy of color to a legitimate government purpose. - Wisdom, writing for the majority in U. S. v. Jefferson County Board of Education,1967. John Minor Wisdom U. S. Court of Appeals Building Joel W. Friedman, Desegregating the South, John Minor Wisdom Collection, 1710–1960, Louisiana Research Collection, Tulane University Judge John Minor Wisdom Collection at the University of New Orleans in the Louisiana Digital Library

23.
United States Supreme Court
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The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest federal court of the United States. In the legal system of the United States, the Supreme Court is the interpreter of federal constitutional law. The Court normally consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight justices who are nominated by the President. Once appointed, justices have life tenure unless they resign, retire, in modern discourse, the justices are often categorized as having conservative, moderate, or liberal philosophies of law and of judicial interpretation. Each justice has one vote, and while many cases are decided unanimously, the Court meets in the United States Supreme Court Building in Washington, D. C. The Supreme Court is sometimes referred to as SCOTUS, in analogy to other acronyms such as POTUS. The ratification of the United States Constitution established the Supreme Court in 1789 and its powers are detailed in Article Three of the Constitution. The Supreme Court is the court specifically established by the Constitution. The Court first convened on February 2,1790, by which five of its six initial positions had been filled. According to historian Fergus Bordewich, in its first session, he Supreme Court convened for the first time at the Royal Exchange Building on Broad Street and they had no cases to consider. After a week of inactivity, they adjourned until September, the sixth member was not confirmed until May 12,1790. Because the full Court had only six members, every decision that it made by a majority was made by two-thirds. However, Congress has always allowed less than the Courts full membership to make decisions, under Chief Justices Jay, Rutledge, and Ellsworth, the Court heard few cases, its first decision was West v. Barnes, a case involving a procedural issue. The Courts power and prestige grew substantially during the Marshall Court, the Marshall Court also ended the practice of each justice issuing his opinion seriatim, a remnant of British tradition, and instead issuing a single majority opinion. Also during Marshalls tenure, although beyond the Courts control, the impeachment, the Taney Court made several important rulings, such as Sheldon v. Nevertheless, it is primarily remembered for its ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which helped precipitate the Civil War. In the Reconstruction era, the Chase, Waite, and Fuller Courts interpreted the new Civil War amendments to the Constitution, during World War II, the Court continued to favor government power, upholding the internment of Japanese citizens and the mandatory pledge of allegiance. Nevertheless, Gobitis was soon repudiated, and the Steel Seizure Case restricted the pro-government trend, the Warren Court dramatically expanded the force of Constitutional civil liberties. It held that segregation in public schools violates equal protection and that traditional legislative district boundaries violated the right to vote

24.
David H. Souter
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David Hackett Souter is a retired Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He served from October 1990 until his retirement in June 2009 and he was the only Justice during his time on the Court with extensive prior court experience outside of a federal appeals court. Following Souters retirement announcement in May 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor as his successor, Souter was born in Melrose, Massachusetts, on September 17,1939, the only child of Joseph Alexander Souter and Helen Adams Souter. At age 11, he moved with his family to their farm in Weare, in 1961, he graduated with an A. B. magna cum laude as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He was selected as a Rhodes Scholar and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Magdalen College, Oxford and he then entered Harvard Law School, graduating in 1966. As Assistant Attorney General he prosecuted criminal cases in the courts, in 1971, Warren Rudman, then the Attorney General of New Hampshire, selected Souter to be the Deputy Attorney General. Souter succeeded Rudman as New Hampshire Attorney General in 1976, in 1978, with the support of his friend Rudman, Souter was named an Associate Justice of the Superior Court of New Hampshire. As a judge on the Superior Court he heard cases in two counties and was noted for his tough sentencing, with four years of trial court experience, Souter was appointed to the New Hampshire Supreme Court as an Associate Justice in 1983. Shortly after George H. W. Bush was sworn in as President, Souter had had seven years of judicial experience at the appellate level, four years at the trial court level, and ten years with the Attorney Generals office. He was confirmed by unanimous consent of the Senate on April 27,1990, President George H. W. Bush originally considered appointing Clarence Thomas to Brennans seat, but decided that Thomas did not have enough experience as a judge. Souter was seen as a justice whose professional record in the state courts provoked little real controversy. Bush nominated Souter on July 25,1990, saying that he did not know Souters stances on abortion, affirmative action, Senate confirmation hearings were held beginning on September 13,1990. The National Organization for Women opposed Souters nomination and held a rally outside of the Senate during his confirmation hearings, the president of NOW, Molly Yard, testified that Souter would end freedom for women in this country. Souter was also opposed by the NAACP, which urged its 500,000 members to write letters to their senators asking them to no on the nomination. And so we had better use every power of our minds and our hearts, despite the opposition, Souter won an easy confirmation compared to those of later appointees. The Senate Judiciary Committee reported out the nomination by a vote of 14–3, the Senate confirmed the nomination by a vote of 90–9, the nine senators voting against Souter included Ted Kennedy and John Kerry from Souters neighboring state of Massachusetts. These senators, along with seven others, painted Souter as a right-winger in the mold of Robert Bork and they based their claim on Souters friendships with many conservative politicians in New Hampshire. Souter opposed having cameras in the Supreme Court during oral arguments because he said questions would be out of context by the media

25.
United States Department of Justice
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The department was formed in 1870 during the Ulysses S. Grant administration. In its early years, the DOJ vigorously prosecuted Ku Klux Klan members, the Department of Justice administers several federal law enforcement agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The department has responsibility to investigate instances of fraud, to represent the United States in legal matters such as in the Supreme Court. The department also has responsibilities to review actions of law enforcement conduct by the Violent Crime Control. The Department is headed by the United States Attorney General, who is nominated by the President, the current Attorney General is Jeff Sessions. The U. S. Attorney General was initially a one-person and it was established by the Judiciary Act of 1789, but this grew with the bureaucracy. At one time the Attorney General gave legal advice to the U. S. Congress as well as the President, until March 3,1853, the salary of the Attorney General was set by statute at less than the amount paid to other Cabinet members. Early Attorneys General supplemented their salary by engaging in private practice of law. Following unsuccessful efforts to put the Attorney Generals Office on a footing, in 1869. On February 19,1868, Lawrence introduced a bill in Congress to create the Department of Justice, President Ulysses S. Grant then signed the bill into law on June 22,1870. The Department of Justice officially began operations on July 1,1870, just prior to the Civil War, in February 1861, the Confederate States of America established a Department of Justice. Grant appointed Amos T. Akerman as Attorney General and Benjamin H. Bristow as Americas first Solicitor General, both Akerman and Bristow used the Department of Justice to vigorously prosecute Ku Klux Klan members in the early 1870s. In the first few years of Grants first term in there were 1000 indictments against Klan members with over 550 convictions from the Department of Justice. The result was a decrease in violence in the South. Akerman gave credit to Grant and told a friend that no one was better or stronger then Grant when it came to prosecuting terrorists. Akermans successor, George H. Williams, in December 1871, the law did create a new office, that of Solicitor General, to supervise and conduct government litigation in the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1884, control of federal prisons was transferred to the new department, new facilities were built, including the penitentiary at Leavenworth in 1895, and a facility for women located in West Virginia, at Alderson was established in 1924. The U. S. Department of Justice building was completed in 1935 from a design by Milton Bennett Medary, upon Medarys death in 1929, the other partners of his Philadelphia firm Zantzinger, Borie and Medary took over the project

26.
George H. W. Bush
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George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who was the 41st President of the United States from 1989 to 1993 and the 43rd Vice President of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Republican Party, he was previously a congressman, ambassador, and he is the oldest living former President and Vice President. Prior to his sons presidency, he was referred to as George Bush or President Bush. Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to Prescott Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Bush postponed his university studies, enlisted in the U. S. Navy on his 18th birthday and he served until the end of the war, then attended Yale University. Graduating in 1948, he moved his family to West Texas and entered the oil business, Bush became involved in politics soon after founding his own oil company, serving as a member of the House of Representatives and Director of Central Intelligence, among other positions. He failed to win the Republican nomination for President in 1980, but was chosen as a mate by party nominee Ronald Reagan. During his tenure, Bush headed administration task forces on deregulation, in 1988, Bush ran a successful campaign to succeed Reagan as President, defeating Democratic opponent Michael Dukakis. Foreign policy drove the Bush presidency, military operations were conducted in Panama and the Persian Gulf, the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, and the Soviet Union dissolved two years later. Domestically, Bush reneged on a 1988 campaign promise and, after a struggle with Congress and his presidential library was dedicated in 1997, and he has been active—often alongside Bill Clinton—in various humanitarian activities. Besides being the 43rd president, his son George also served as the 46th Governor of Texas and is one of only two other being John Quincy Adams—to be the son of a former president. His second son, Jeb Bush, served as the 43rd Governor of Florida, George Herbert Walker Bush was born at 173 Adams Street in Milton, Massachusetts, on June 12,1924, to Prescott Sheldon Bush and Dorothy Bush. The Bush family moved from Milton to Greenwich, Connecticut, shortly after his birth, growing up, his nickname was Poppy. Bush began his education at the Greenwich Country Day School in Greenwich. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Bush decided to join the US, Navy, so after graduating from Phillips Academy in 1942, he became a naval aviator at the age of 18. He was assigned to Torpedo Squadron as the officer in September 1943. The following year, his squadron was based on USS San Jacinto as a member of Air Group 51, during this time, the task force was victorious in one of the largest air battles of World War II, the Battle of the Philippine Sea. After Bushs promotion to Lieutenant on August 1,1944, San Jacinto commenced operations against the Japanese in the Bonin Islands, Bush piloted one of four Grumman TBM Avenger aircraft from VT-51 that attacked the Japanese installations on Chichijima

27.
Washington, D.C.
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Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia, in 1871. Washington had an population of 681,170 as of July 2016. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, of which the District is a part, has a population of over 6 million, the centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are in the District, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Washington is home to national monuments and museums, which are primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of international organizations, trade unions, non-profit organizations, lobbying groups. A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973, However, the Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, the District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century, One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. 43, published January 23,1788, James Madison argued that the new government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance. Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital, on July 9,1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory, the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, many of the stones are still standing

28.
Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw
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Mayer Brown is a global legal services provider. With offices in 24 cities across the Americas, Asia, Europe, the firm advises many Fortune 100, FTSE100, DAX and Hang Seng Index companies and more than half of the world’s largest banks. The three firms that now form the core of Mayer Brown were all founded in the 19th century, the US portion of the firm was founded in 1881 in Chicago, by Adolf Kraus and Levy Mayer, and was shortly thereafter known as Kraus, Mayer & Brackett. After several changes in name to reflect its membership the firm eventually became known in the US as Mayer. The English portion of the firm, Rowe & Maw, was established in 1895 in London and operated under that name until joining with Mayer, Brown & Platt in 2002 to form Mayer, Brown, in 2007 the amalgamated firm shortened its name to Mayer Brown. Johnson Stokes & Master was formed in 1863 in Hong Kong and is known as Mayer Brown JSM after merging with Mayer Brown in 2008. Represents both issuers and underwriters in a variety of debt and equity offerings as well as working at the forefront of the market for securitized products. Provides legal services on transactions including cross-border deals and industry-specific issues, sub-practices include capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, private equity and business and technology sourcing. Advises on a range of domestic, international and cross-border cybersecurity. Advises on issues of employment, employee benefits, executive compensation, ERISA litigation, provides financial services organizations with representation on strategic, regulatory, compliance and enforcement issues. Advises on traditional banking, broker-dealer, investment management, cross-border investigation and enforcement, advises on the full gamut of global mobility issues that businesses face on a daily basis including visa and work permit authorizations. Represents clients in areas of domestic and global policy and provides advice on the government contracting process at the federal, state. Helps clients create a variety of durable and effective joint venture. In the US, argues before the Supreme Court and federal, provides a full-service offering to clients engaged in the funds and alternative investments industry. The practice spans the life cycle of a fund, its sponsor/manager as well as all underlying investments. Provides representation in matters of corporate, partnership and individual taxation, includes sub-practices in transactions, consulting and planning, audits, administrative appeals, litigation and international transfer pricing. Offers in-depth understanding of technology transactions to secure high-value contracts, improve operations, build digital platforms, advises high-net-worth individuals on matters related to their business and investment interests, including minimizing taxes and accommodating family situations. Received a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index 2017, law360 Firm of the Year 2016 and Practices of the Year for, Appellate, Banking, Class Action, Food & Beverage, Life Sciences, Technology and Transportation

29.
Middle East
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The Middle East is a transcontinental region centered on Western Asia and Egypt. The corresponding adjective is Middle-Eastern and the noun is Middle-Easterner. The term has come into usage as a replacement of the term Near East beginning in the early 20th century. Arabs, Turks, Persians, Kurds, and Azeris constitute the largest ethnic groups in the region by population. Indigenous minorities of the Middle East include Jews, Assyrians and other Arameans, Baloch, Berbers, Copts, Druze, Lurs, Mandaeans, Samaritans, Shabaks, Tats, in the Middle East, there is also a Romani community. European ethnic groups form a diaspora in the region include Albanians, Bosniaks, Circassians, Crimean Tatars, Franco-Levantines. Among other migrant populations are Bengalis as well as other Indians, Chinese, Filipinos, Indonesians, Pakistanis, the history of the Middle East dates back to ancient times, with the importance of the region being recognized for millennia. Most of the countries border the Persian Gulf have vast reserves of crude oil. The term Middle East may have originated in the 1850s in the British India Office, however, it became more widely known when American naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan used the term in 1902 to designate the area between Arabia and India. During this time the British and Russian Empires were vying for influence in Central Asia, Mahan realized not only the strategic importance of the region, but also of its center, the Persian Gulf. Mahan first used the term in his article The Persian Gulf and International Relations, published in September 1902 in the National Review, a British journal. The Middle East, if I may adopt a term which I have not seen, will some day need its Malta, as well as its Gibraltar, it does not follow that either will be in the Persian Gulf. The British Navy should have the facility to concentrate in force if occasion arise, about Aden, India, mahans article was reprinted in The Times and followed in October by a 20-article series entitled The Middle Eastern Question, written by Sir Ignatius Valentine Chirol. During this series, Sir Ignatius expanded the definition of Middle East to include regions of Asia which extend to the borders of India or command the approaches to India. After the series ended in 1903, The Times removed quotation marks from subsequent uses of the term, in the late 1930s, the British established the Middle East Command, which was based in Cairo, for its military forces in the region. After that time, the term Middle East gained broader usage in Europe, the description Middle has also led to some confusion over changing definitions. Before the First World War, Near East was used in English to refer to the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire, while Middle East referred to Iran, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Turkestan. The first official use of the term Middle East by the United States government was in the 1957 Eisenhower Doctrine, the Associated Press Stylebook says that Near East formerly referred to the farther west countries while Middle East referred to the eastern ones, but that now they are synonymous

30.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians

31.
Iran
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Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably

32.
Cuba
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Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is a country comprising the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean where the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and it is south of both the U. S. state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Haiti, and north of Jamaica. Havana is the largest city and capital, other cities include Santiago de Cuba. Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, with an area of 109,884 square kilometres, prior to Spanish colonization in the late 15th century, Cuba was inhabited by Amerindian tribes. It remained a colony of Spain until the Spanish–American War of 1898, as a fragile republic, Cuba attempted to strengthen its democratic system, but mounting political radicalization and social strife culminated in the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1952. Further unrest and instability led to Batistas ousting in January 1959 by the July 26 Movement, since 1965, the state has been governed by the Communist Party of Cuba. A point of contention during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, a nuclear war broke out during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Culturally, Cuba is considered part of Latin America, Cuba is a Marxist–Leninist one-party republic, where the role of the vanguard Communist Party is enshrined in the Constitution. Independent observers have accused the Cuban government of human rights abuses. It is one of the worlds last planned economies and its economy is dominated by the exports of sugar, tobacco, coffee, according to the Human Development Index, Cuba is described as a country with high human development and is ranked the eighth highest in North America. It also ranks highly in some metrics of national performance, including health care, the name Cuba comes from the Taíno language. The exact meaning of the name is unclear but it may be translated either as where fertile land is abundant, authors who believe that Christopher Columbus was Portuguese state that Cuba was named by Columbus for the town of Cuba in the district of Beja in Portugal. Before the arrival of the Spanish, Cuba was inhabited by three distinct tribes of indigenous peoples of the Americas, the Taíno, the Guanajatabey, and the Ciboney people. The ancestors of the Ciboney migrated from the mainland of South America, the Taíno arrived from Hispanola sometime in the 3rd century A. D. When Columbus arrived they were the dominant culture in Cuba, having a population of 150,000. The name Cuba comes from the native Taíno language and it is derived from either coabana meaning great place, or from cubao meaning where fertile land is abundant. The Taíno were farmers, while the Ciboney were farmers as well as fishers and hunter-gatherers, Columbus claimed the island for the new Kingdom of Spain and named it Isla Juana after Juan, Prince of Asturias. In 1511, the first Spanish settlement was founded by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar at Baracoa, other towns soon followed, including San Cristobal de la Habana, founded in 1515, which later became the capital

33.
Iraq
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The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. The main ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds, others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, around 95% of the countrys 36 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish, two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws, the area has been home to successive civilisations since the 6th millennium BC. Iraq was the centre of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian and it was also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires. Iraqs modern borders were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations when the Ottoman Empire was divided by the Treaty of Sèvres, Iraq was placed under the authority of the United Kingdom as the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. A monarchy was established in 1921 and the Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Britain in 1932, in 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Baath Party from 1968 until 2003, after an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Husseins Baath Party was removed from power and multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005. The American presence in Iraq ended in 2011, but the Iraqi insurgency continued and intensified as fighters from the Syrian Civil War spilled into the country, the Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name, one dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for city, UR. An Arabic folk etymology for the name is rooted, well-watered. During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿajamī, for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the south of the Hamrin Mountains. The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In English, it is either /ɪˈrɑːk/ or /ɪˈræk/, the American Heritage Dictionary, the pronunciation /aɪˈræk/ is frequently heard in U. S. media. Since approximately 10,000 BC, Iraq was one of centres of a Caucasoid Neolithic culture where agriculture, the following Neolithic period is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations

34.
Obama Administration
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The presidency of Barack Obama began at noon EST on January 20,2009, when Barack Obama was inaugurated as President of the United States, and ended on January 20,2017. Obama, a Democrat, took office as the 44th United States president following a victory over Republican John McCain in the 2008 presidential election. Four years later, in the 2012 election, he defeated Mitt Romney to win re-election and he was the first African American president, the first multiracial president, the first non-white president, and the first president to have been born in Hawaii. Obama was succeeded by Republican Donald Trump, who won the 2016 presidential election, Obama also appointed Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, the latter of whom became the first Hispanic American on the Supreme Court. Democrats controlled both houses of Congress until Republicans won a majority in the House of Representatives in the 2010 elections, following the elections, Obama and Congressional Republicans engaged in a protracted stand-off over government spending levels and the debt ceiling. In his second term, Obama took steps to combat climate change, signing an international climate agreement. Obama also presided over the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and other legislation passed in his first term, the number of American soldiers in Afghanistan fell dramatically during Obamas second term, though U. S. soldiers remained in Afghanistan throughout Obamas presidency. The presidential transition period began following Obamas election to the presidency in November 2008, John Podesta, Valerie Jarrett, and Pete Rouse co-chaired the Obama-Biden Transition Project. During the transition period, Obama announced nominations for his Cabinet, in November 2008, Congressman Rahm Emanuel accepted Obamas offer to serve as White House Chief of Staff. Obama was inaugurated on January 20,2009, succeeding George W. Bush, Obama officially assumed the presidency at 12,00 pm, EST, and completed the oath of office at 12,05 pm, EST. He delivered his inaugural address immediately following his oath, following his inauguration, Obama and the Senate worked to confirm his nominees to the United States Cabinet. Obama nominated several former Clinton administration officials to the Cabinet and to other positions, on April 28,2009, the Senate confirmed former Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of Health and Human Services, completing Obamas initial Cabinet. In March 2016, Obama nominated Chief Judge Merrick Garland of the D. C. Circuit to fill Scalias seat, garlands nomination remained before the Senate for longer than any other Supreme Court nomination in history, and the nomination expired with the end of the 114th Congress. President Donald Trump is widely expected to appoint a successor to Scalia, Obamas presidency saw the continuation of battles between both parties over the confirmation of judicial nominees. Democrats continually accused Republicans of stalling nominees throughout Obamas tenure, after several nomination battles, Senate Democrats in 2013 reformed the use of the filibuster so that it could no longer be used on executive or judicial nominations. Obamas judicial nominees were significantly more diverse than those of previous administrations, with more appointments going to women, some of the first actions of Obamas presidency focused on reversing measures taken by the Bush administration following the September 11 attacks. Another order, Executive Order 13491, banned torture and other coercive techniques, on January 29, Obama signed a bill for the first time in his presidency, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 revised the statute of limitations for filing pay discrimination lawsuits. On February 3, he signed the Childrens Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act, on March 9,2009, Obama lifted restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research

35.
Donald Rumsfeld
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Donald Henry Don Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford and he is both the youngest and the second oldest person to have served as Secretary of Defense. Additionally, Rumsfeld was a three-term U. S, Congressman from Illinois, Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, Counsellor to the President, the United States Permanent Representative to NATO, and White House Chief of Staff. Born in Illinois, Rumsfeld attended Princeton University, graduating in 1954 with a degree in political science, after serving in the Navy for three years, he mounted a campaign for Congress in Illinois 13th Congressional District, winning in 1962 at the age of 30. He was a leading co-sponsor of the Freedom of Information Act, called back to Washington in August 1974, Rumsfeld was appointed Chief of Staff by President Ford. Rumsfeld recruited a young one-time staffer of his, Dick Cheney, when Ford lost the 1976 election, Rumsfeld returned to private business life, and was named president and CEO of the pharmaceutical corporation G. D. Searle & Company. He was later named CEO of General Instrument from 1990 to 1993, Rumsfeld was appointed Secretary of Defense for a second time in January 2001 by President George W. Bush. During his tenure he was one of the key responsible for the restructuring of the military in the new 21st century. Rumsfeld was crucial in planning the United States response to the September 11 attacks, Known in media circles for his outspokenness and candor, he gradually lost political support as the wars continued, and he resigned in late 2006. In his retirement years, he published an autobiography Known and Unknown, A Memoir as well as Rumsfelds Rules, Leadership Lessons in Business, Politics, War, and Life. He is involved with the Rumsfeld Foundations Fellowship program, which has advisors at dozens of universities across the United States, Donald Henry Rumsfeld was born on July 9,1932, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Jeannette Kearsley and George Donald Rumsfeld. His father came from a German-American family that had emigrated in the 1870s, Living in Winnetka, his family attended a Congregational Church. From 1943–1945, Rumsfeld lived in Coronado, California while his father was stationed on a carrier in the Pacific in World War II. He was a ranger at Philmont Scout Ranch in 1949, Rumsfeld attended Baker Demonstration School, and later graduated from New Trier High School. He attended Princeton University on academic and NROTC partial scholarships and he graduated in 1954 with an A. B. in Political Science. During his time at Princeton, he was an amateur wrestler, becoming captain of the varsity wrestling team. His Princeton University senior thesis was titled The Steel Seizure Case of 1952, while at Princeton he was friends with another future Secretary of Defense, Frank Carlucci. Rumsfeld married Joyce P. Pierson on December 27,1954 and they have three children, six grandchildren, and one great grandchild

36.
United States Department of Defense
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The Department is the largest employer in the world, with nearly 1.3 million active duty servicemen and women as of 2016. Adding to its employees are over 801,000 National Guardsmen and Reservists from the four services and it is headquartered at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D. C. The Department of Defense is headed by the Secretary of Defense, Military operations are managed by nine regional or functional Unified Combatant Commands. The Department of Defense also operates several joint services schools, including the National Defense University, the history of the defense of the United States started with the Continental Congress in 1775. The creation of the United States Army was enacted on 14 June 1775 and this coincides with the American holiday Flag Day. The Second Continental Congress would charter the United States Navy, on 13 October 1775, today, both the Navy and the Marine Corps are separate military services subordinate to the Department of the Navy. The Preamble of the United States Constitution gave the authority to federal government, to defend its citizens and this first Congress had a huge agenda, that of creating legislation to build a government for the ages. Legislation to create a military defense force stagnated, two separate times, President George Washington went to Congress to remind them of their duty to establish a military. In a special message to Congress on 19 December 1945, the President cited both wasteful military spending and inter-departmental conflicts, deliberations in Congress went on for months focusing heavily on the role of the military in society and the threat of granting too much military power to the executive. The act placed the National Military Establishment under the control of a single Secretary of Defense, the National Military Establishment formally began operations on 18 September, the day after the Senate confirmed James V. Forrestal as the first Secretary of Defense. The National Military Establishment was renamed the Department of Defense on 10 August 1949, under the Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1958, channels of authority within the department were streamlined, while still maintaining the authority of the Military Departments. Also provided in this legislation was a centralized authority, the Advanced Research Projects Agency. The Act moved decision-making authority from the Military Departments to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and it also strengthened the command channel of the military over U. S. forces from the President to the Secretary of Defense. Written and promoted by the Eisenhower administration, it was signed into law 6 August 1958, because the Constitution vests all military authority in Congress and the President, the statutory authority of the Secretary of Defense is derived from their constitutional authorities. Department of Defense Directive 5100.01 describes the relationships within the Department. The latest version, signed by former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in December 2010, is the first major re-write since 1987, the Office of the Secretary of Defense is the Secretary and Deputy Secretarys civilian staff. S. Government departments and agencies, foreign governments, and international organizations, OSD also performs oversight and management of the Defense Agencies and Department of Defense Field Activities. OSD also supervises the following Defense Agencies, Several defense agencies are members of the United States Intelligence Community and these are national-level intelligence services that operate under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense but simultaneously fall under the authorities of the Director of National Intelligence

37.
United States Senate
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The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress which, along with the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, composes the legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the Senate are established by Article One of the United States Constitution. S. From 1789 until 1913, Senators were appointed by the legislatures of the states represented, following the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913. The Senate chamber is located in the wing of the Capitol, in Washington. It further has the responsibility of conducting trials of those impeached by the House, in the early 20th century, the practice of majority and minority parties electing their floor leaders began, although they are not constitutional officers. This idea of having one chamber represent people equally, while the other gives equal representation to states regardless of population, was known as the Connecticut Compromise, there was also a desire to have two Houses that could act as an internal check on each other. One was intended to be a Peoples House directly elected by the people, the other was intended to represent the states to such extent as they retained their sovereignty except for the powers expressly delegated to the national government. The Senate was thus not designed to serve the people of the United States equally, the Constitution provides that the approval of both chambers is necessary for the passage of legislation. First convened in 1789, the Senate of the United States was formed on the example of the ancient Roman Senate, the name is derived from the senatus, Latin for council of elders. James Madison made the comment about the Senate, In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people. An agrarian law would take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation, landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority, the senate, therefore, ought to be this body, and to answer these purposes, the people ought to have permanency and stability. The Constitution stipulates that no constitutional amendment may be created to deprive a state of its equal suffrage in the Senate without that states consent, the District of Columbia and all other territories are not entitled to representation in either House of the Congress. The District of Columbia elects two senators, but they are officials of the D. C. city government. The United States has had 50 states since 1959, thus the Senate has had 100 senators since 1959. In 1787, Virginia had roughly ten times the population of Rhode Island, whereas today California has roughly 70 times the population of Wyoming and this means some citizens are effectively two orders of magnitude better represented in the Senate than those in other states. Seats in the House of Representatives are approximately proportionate to the population of each state, before the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, Senators were elected by the individual state legislatures

38.
Overseas Private Investment Corporation
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The Overseas Private Investment Corporation is the United States government’s development finance institution. It mobilizes private capital to solve critical development challenges and, in doing so, advances the foreign policy of the United States. Because OPIC works with the U. S. private sector, it helps U. S. businesses gain footholds in emerging markets, catalyzing revenues, jobs and growth opportunities both at home and abroad. OPIC achieves its mission by providing investors with financing, political risk insurance, and support for private equity investment funds, established as an agency of the U. S. Government in 1971, OPIC operates on a self-sustaining basis at no net cost to American taxpayers. All OPIC projects adhere to environmental and social standards and respect human rights. By mandating high standards, OPIC aims to raise the industry, OPIC services are available for new and expanding business enterprises in more than 160 countries worldwide. Medium- to long-term funding through loans and loan guarantees to eligible investment projects in developing countries. By complementing the private sector, OPIC can provide financing in countries where financial institutions often are reluctant or unable to lend. OPIC recognizes that businesses both large and small can play an important role in developing nations, in recent years, OPIC has made it a priority to work with American small businesses, which comprise, on average,80 percent of projects supported by the agency. While the eligible U. S. small business must own at least 25 percent of the overseas project, OPIC has conducted more than a dozen small business workshops around the United States since 2006, educating nearly 1,600 business owners about OPIC products and services. OPIC helps U. S. investors protect their investments in a variety of situations, including violence, expropriation or other government interference. OPIC provides support for the creation of privately owned and managed investment funds and these funds make direct equity and equity-related investments in new, expanding or privatizing emerging market companies. OPIC supports projects in a range of energy to housing, agriculture. It focuses on regions where the need is greatest and in sectors that can have the greatest developmental impact, OPIC has increasingly focused on projects that encourage the use of renewable resources, which represent not only an urgent global need but also a significant investment opportunity. Working with private energy companies Total and Etrion, OPIC provided 70% financing for the $200 million project, another key priority is impact investing, which aims to produce positive social impacts while generating financial returns sufficient to make these projects sustainable. OPIC has committed to provide $1, OPIC requires that its projects have a meaningful connection to the U. S. private sector. OPIC does not support projects that affect the U. S economy. OPIC projects must meet congressionally mandated requirements regarding protection of the environment, social impacts, health, projects that are likely to have significant adverse environmental or social impacts are disclosed to the public for a comment period of 60 days

39.
John Roberts
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John Glover Roberts Jr. is the 17th and current Chief Justice of the United States. He took his seat on September 29,2005, having been nominated by President George W. Bush after the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist and he has been described as having a conservative judicial philosophy in his jurisprudence. Roberts grew up in northwest Indiana and was educated in a private school and he then attended Harvard College and Harvard Law School, where he was a managing editor of the Harvard Law Review. During this time, he argued 39 cases before the Supreme Court, during his two-year tenure on the D. C. Circuit, Roberts authored 49 opinions, eliciting two dissents from other judges, and authoring three dissents of his own, notably, he represented 19 states in United States v. Microsoft. When Chief Justice Rehnquist died before Robertss confirmation hearings began, Bush instead nominated Roberts to fill the Chief Justice position, Roberts has authored the majority opinion in many landmark cases, including Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, Shelby County v. Holder, and National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, John Glover Roberts was born in Buffalo, New York, the son of Rosemary and John Glover Jack Roberts Sr. His father was a plant manager with Bethlehem Steel and he has Irish, Welsh, and Czech ancestry. When Roberts was in grade, his family moved to Long Beach. He grew up with three sisters, Kathy, Peggy, and Barbara, Roberts attended Notre Dame Elementary School, a Roman Catholic grade school in Long Beach. In 1973, he graduated from La Lumiere School, a Roman Catholic boarding school in La Porte, Indiana and he studied five years of Latin, some French, and was known generally for his devotion to his studies. He was captain of the team, and was a regional champion in wrestling. He participated in choir and drama, co-edited the school newspaper, and served on the athletic council and he attended Harvard College, graduating in 1976 with an A. B. summa cum laude in history in three years. He then attended Harvard Law School where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He graduated from law school with a J. D. magna cum laude in 1979, after graduating from law school, Roberts served as a law clerk for Judge Henry Friendly on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals for one year. Roberts frequently cites Judge Friendly in his opinions, from 1980 to 1981, he clerked for then-Associate Justice William Rehnquist on the United States Supreme Court. From 1981 to 1982, he served in the Reagan administration as a Special Assistant to U. S. Attorney General William French Smith, from 1982 to 1986, Roberts served as Associate Counsel to the President under White House Counsel Fred Fielding. Roberts entered private law practice in 1986 as an associate at the Washington, D. C. -based law firm of Hogan & Hartson, Roberts also argued on behalf of the homeless, a case which became one of Roberts few appellate losses

40.
United States Ambassador to Iran
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Prior to 1944, Iran was not served by a United States ambassador, instead, a diplomatic minister was sent. The first ambassador was named in 1944, after the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979, the United States terminated diplomatic relations with the regime, therefore no ambassadors have since been appointed. The United States government has since then been represented in Iran by the United States Interests Section of the Embassy of Switzerland in Tehran and this is a list of United States ambassadors and other heads of diplomatic missions to Iran. United States Department of State, Chiefs of Mission for Iran United States Department of State, Iran

41.
William H. Sullivan
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William Healy Sullivan was an American Foreign Service career officer who served as Ambassador to Laos from 1964–1969, the Philippines from 1973–1977, and Iran from 1977–1979. Sullivan was born in Cranston, Rhode Island, and graduated from Brown University as salutatorian and Class Orator of the class of 1943. His senior address was on America’s duty to “aid in repairing not only the damage suffered by our Allies, but also sustained by our enemies. ”After graduation, he entered the Navy and served as a gunnery officer on a destroyer. The Hambleton escorted North Atlantic convoys, and served off North Africa and Italy before participating in the D-Day invasion of Normandy and he had the senior watch on the Hambleton when it entered Yokohama harbor for the Japanese surrender. After obtaining a joint graduate degree from Harvard University and the Fletcher School at Tufts University under the GI Bill, Sullivan joined the Foreign Service and was posted to Bangkok, Thailand. During that tour, he was in communication with the Viet Cong. His subsequent assignments were to Calcutta, India, Tokyo, Japan, Naples and Rome, Italy and his habit of speaking his mind with force and candor grated on more than one superior, and for years he languished in the lower grades. Then, in the Kennedy administration, he was assigned to the office of W. Averell Harriman, Harriman, no admirer of blandness, immediately recognized his abilities. Sullivan served as Harriman’s deputy at Geneva negotiations about the future of Laos in 1961, when the Vietnam War heated up, he served briefly as deputy chief of mission to the U. S. Embassy in Saigon. In 1964, Sullivan began his tenure as Ambassador to Laos. S, pursuant to an order by President Kennedy, all U. S. military operations in Laos were under the direct supervision of the Ambassador. As Ambassador to Laos during Project 404, and as a gunnery officer he also personally directed the bombing of the Ho Chi Minh trail in order to minimize civilian casualties. This civilian control and the restriction on military operations rankled the military, after he left Laos, Sullivan returned to Washington to coordinate the U. S. participation in the Paris Peace Talks. Thereafter, he was appointed Ambassador to the Philippines, South Vietnam fell while he in the Philippines, and Sullivan orchestrated the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people through that nation. S. Property after the fall of the South Vietnamese government, as a result of the terms of their sale to that state, Sullivan next served as U. S. Ambassador to Iran, arriving just before President Jimmy Carter’s visit to the Shah of Iran in December 1977. In the 1970s, America had extremely close military and economic links with Iran, however, in early 1978, growing unrest due to inflation and other economic hardships fueled by the growing tide of fundamentalist Islam led to demonstrations against the Shah. During the next year, however, as the situation in Iran was rapidly unraveling. In January 1979, the White House instructed Sullivan to inform the shah that the U. S. government felt he should leave the country, on February 1,1979, the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Tehran. Days later, with Tehran in the throes of revolution, Under Secretary of State David D, thats not a very helpful comment

42.
Maryland's 8th congressional district
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Marylands 8th congressional district stretches from the northern Washington, D. C. suburbs north towards the Pennsylvania border. The district is represented by Democrat Jamie Raskin. The district was created after the 1790 census in time for the 1792 election, was abolished after the 1830 census, during redistricting after the 2000 census, the Democratic-dominated Maryland legislature sought to unseat then-incumbent Republican Connie Morella. Although it forced Van Hollen and Shriver to run against each other in a primary, the shift pushed the district into the Democratic column. From 2003 to 2013 the district consisted of the larger part of Montgomery County. The district now includes Carroll, Frederick, and parts of Montgomery County, marylands congressional districts List of United States congressional districts FairVote. The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress, the Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts. Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present

United States Deputy Secretary of State
–
The Deputy Secretary of State of the United States is the principal deputy to the Secretary of State. If the Secretary of State resigns or dies, the Deputy Secretary of State becomes Acting Secretary of State until the President nominates, the position was created in 1972. Prior to July 13,1972, the Under Secretary of State had been the ranking off

1.
Incumbent Tony Blinken since December 17, 2014

2.
Seal of the Department of State

Donald Trump
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Donald John Trump is the 45th and current President of the United States. Prior to entering politics he was a businessman and television personality, Trump was born and raised in Queens, New York City, and earned an economics degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He then took charge of The Trump Organization, the estate

1.
Donald Trump

3.
The Trump Organization owns, operates, develops and invests in real estate around the world such as Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago.

4.
Trump Tower, at 725 Fifth Avenue, in Midtown Manhattan

Tony Blinken
–
Antony Tony John Blinken is the former United States Deputy Secretary of State and the former Deputy National Security Advisor for President Barack Obama. From 2009 to 2013 Blinken served as Deputy Assistant to the President, from 2002 to 2008 he served as the Democratic Staff Director for the U. S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. From 2001 to

1.
Tony Blinken

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Blinken, standing in blue shirt in back of room, during the Osama Bin Laden raid.

Heather Higginbottom
–
Heather Anne Higginbottom is a diplomat who was the U. S. Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources from 2013 to 2017. She previously served as Counselor of the United States Department of State and prior to that had served as Deputy Director of the federal Office of Management, on October 20,2011, the United States Senate voted 64–36

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Heather Higginbottom

United States Deputy Secretary of Commerce
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The Deputy Secretary of Commerce is a high-ranking position within the U. S. Department of Commerce. It was created on December 13,1979, when President Jimmy Carter sent a letter to the U. S. Senate and nominated Luther H. Hodges, in that capacity, the Deputy Secretary is also a member of the President’s Management Council. In addition, the Deputy

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Incumbent Bruce H. Andrews since July 24, 2014

2.
Seal of the Department of Commerce

George W. Bush
–
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He was also the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000 and he is the eldest son of Barbara and George H. W. Bush. After graduating from Yale University in 1968 and Harvard Business School in 1975, Bush married Laura Welch in 1977

1.
George W. Bush

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Lt. George W. Bush while in the Texas Air National Guard

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Governor Bush (right) with father, former president George H. W. Bush and wife, Laura, in 1997

David A. Sampson
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David Allan Sampson is the president and CEO of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. He was born in Washington, Indiana and he joined PCI in September 2007. He was previously United States Deputy Secretary of Commerce and took the oath of office on July 27,2005, as Deputy Secretary he was the De

1.
David Sampson Official Portrait

Dennis Hightower
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He spent his formative years in Washington, D. C. and graduated from McKinley High School in 1958, at age 16, as class president. He entered Howard University that same year and graduated in 1962, at age 20, while at Howard, he was a student leader, a student athlete, and was the top graduating senior and a Distinguished Military Graduate of the Ar

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Dennis F. Hightower

United States Department of Commerce
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The United States Department of Commerce is the Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with promoting economic growth. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for business and government decision-making and this organizations main purpose is to create jobs, promote economic growth, encourage sustainable dev

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The Herbert C. Hoover Building, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

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Seal of the U.S. Department of Commerce

Theodore Kassinger
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He is a native of Atlanta, Georgia. While serving as Deputy Secretary of Commerce, Kassinger managed a $6.5 billion annual budget, and 38,000 employees and he was also a keynote speaker at the 2005 U. S. - China Trade, Opportunities and Challenges Conference, prior to his government service, Kassinger was a partner at Vinson & Elkins, a multination

1.
Theodore W. Kassinger

Boston, Massachusetts
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Boston is the capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Boston is also the seat of Suffolk County, although the county government was disbanded on July 1,1999. The city proper covers 48 square miles with a population of 667,137 in 2015, making it the largest city in New England. Alternately, as a Comb

1.
From top to bottom, left to right: the Boston skyline viewed from the Bunker Hill Monument; the Museum of Fine Arts; Faneuil Hall; Massachusetts State House; The First Church of Christ, Scientist; Boston Public Library; the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum; South Station; Boston University and the Charles River; Arnold Arboretum; Fenway Park; and the Boston Common

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State Street, 1801

3.
View of Boston from Dorchester Heights, 1841

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Scollay Square in the 1880s

Massachusetts
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It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island to the south, New Hampshire and Vermont to the north, and New York to the west. The state is named for the Massachusett tribe, which inhabited the area. The capital of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England is Boston, over 80% of Massachuse

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A portion of the north-central Pioneer Valley in Sunderland

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Flag

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Many coastal areas in Massachusetts provide breeding areas for species such as the piping plover

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The Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor by William Halsall (1882). The Pilgrims were a group of Puritans who founded Plymouth in 1620.

United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean,

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Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764

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Flag

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The signing of the Mayflower Compact, 1620.

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The Declaration of Independence: the Committee of Five presenting their draft to the Second Continental Congress in 1776

Republican Party (United States)
–
The Republican Party, commonly referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, the other being its historic rival, the Democratic Party. The party is named after republicanism, the dominant value during the American Revolution, there have been 19 Republican presidents, the most from any one party

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Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican U.S. President (1861–1865).

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Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States (1901–1909)

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Dwight Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States (1953–1961)

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Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States (1969–1974)

Brown University
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Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine Colonial Colleges established before the American Revolution. At its foundation, Brown was the first college in the United States to accept students regardless of their religious affiliation and its engineering program was established in 1847 and wa

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Stephen Hopkins, first chancellor of Brown, governor of Rhode Island, and signer of the Declaration of Independence

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The Ezra Stiles copy of the Brown University Charter of 1764

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Nicholas Brown, Junior, founder of the Providence Athenaeum, co-founder of Butler Hospital, philanthropist, progressive, and abolitionist. Following his major gift in 1804, the College was renamed Brown University. Painting by Chester Harding, 1836

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Brigadier general James Mitchell Varnum, class of 1769, served in the Continental Army and advocated the enlistment of African Americans, which resulted in the reformation of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment as an all-black unit. Painting by Charles Willson Peale, 1804

Bachelor of Arts
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A Bachelor of Arts is a bachelors degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both. Bachelor of Arts degree programs take three to four years depending on the country, academic institution, and specific specializations, majors or minors. The word baccalaureus or baccalarium should not be confus

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A certificate or diploma evidencing the granting of a bachelor's degree

Columbia University
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Columbia University is a private Ivy League research university in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It was established in 1754 as Kings College by royal charter of George II of Great Britain, after the American Revolutionary War, Kings College briefly became a state entity, and was renamed Columbia College in 1784. Columbia is one of the fourteen fo

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The Library at Columbia University, ca. 1900

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Columbia University

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Low Memorial Library

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Alma Mater

Juris Doctor
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The Juris Doctor degree, also known as the Doctor of Jurisprudence degree, is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. It is earned by completing law school in Australia, Canada and the United States and it has the academic standing of a second-entry, professional baccalaureate degree in Canada, a master

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Example of a diploma from Suffolk University Law School conferring the Juris Doctor degree.

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The Inns of Court of London served as a professional school for lawyers in England

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Tapping Reeve, founder of the first law school in North America, the Litchfield Law School, in 1773

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Joseph Story, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, lecturer of law at Harvard and proponent of the scientific study of law

Boston
–
Boston is the capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Boston is also the seat of Suffolk County, although the county government was disbanded on July 1,1999. The city proper covers 48 square miles with a population of 667,137 in 2015, making it the largest city in New England. Alternately, as a Comb

1.
From top to bottom, left to right: the Boston skyline viewed from the Bunker Hill Monument; the Museum of Fine Arts; Faneuil Hall; Massachusetts State House; The First Church of Christ, Scientist; Boston Public Library; the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum; South Station; Boston University and the Charles River; Arnold Arboretum; Fenway Park; and the Boston Common

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State Street, 1801

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View of Boston from Dorchester Heights, 1841

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Scollay Square in the 1880s

Xaverian Brothers High School
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Xaverian Brothers High School, founded in 1963 by the Xaverian Brothers, is a private, Catholic secondary school for boys in grades 7-12 on a 33-acre campus in Westwood, Massachusetts. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, Xaverian is sponsored by the Xaverian Brothers religious order, and offers a rigorous college preparatory

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Xaverian Brothers High School

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Veritatem Fratribus Testari

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XBHS Scholastic and Wellness Center

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Main entrance to XBHS

Columbia Law School
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Columbia Law School is a professional graduate school of Columbia University, a member of the Ivy League. It is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked in the top five by U. S. News. Columbia is especially known for its strength in corporate law. Columbia Law School was founded in 1858 as the Co

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James Kent

3.
Columbia Law School

John Minor Wisdom
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At that time, the Fifth Circuit included not only Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, but also Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and the Panama Canal Zone. John Minor Wisdom was born on May 17,1905, in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1925, he received an Artium Baccalaureus degree from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. In 1929, he received a

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John Minor Wisdom

United States Supreme Court
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The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest federal court of the United States. In the legal system of the United States, the Supreme Court is the interpreter of federal constitutional law. The Court normally consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight justices who are nominated by the President. Once appointed, justices

David H. Souter
–
David Hackett Souter is a retired Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He served from October 1990 until his retirement in June 2009 and he was the only Justice during his time on the Court with extensive prior court experience outside of a federal appeals court. Following Souters retirement announcement in May 2009, Preside

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The Honorable David Souter

2.
Souter receiving an honorary degree from Harvard University on May 27, 2010

United States Department of Justice
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The department was formed in 1870 during the Ulysses S. Grant administration. In its early years, the DOJ vigorously prosecuted Ku Klux Klan members, the Department of Justice administers several federal law enforcement agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The department has responsibility

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The Robert F. Kennedy Building in August 2006. The building serves as the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Seal of the United States Department of Justice

George H. W. Bush
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George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who was the 41st President of the United States from 1989 to 1993 and the 43rd Vice President of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Republican Party, he was previously a congressman, ambassador, and he is the oldest living former President and Vice President. Prior to his sons presidency, he wa

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George H. W. Bush

2.
George Bush in his TBM Avenger on the carrier USS San Jacinto in 1944

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Bush with President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Washington, D.C.
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Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any

1.
Clockwise from top left: Smithsonian Institution Building, Rock Creek Park, National Mall (including the Lincoln Memorial in the foreground), Howard Theatre and the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site

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Map of the District of Columbia in 1835, prior to the retrocession

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Ford's Theatre in the 19th century, site of the 1865 assassination of President Lincoln

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Crowds surrounding the Reflecting Pool during the 1963 March on Washington

Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw
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Mayer Brown is a global legal services provider. With offices in 24 cities across the Americas, Asia, Europe, the firm advises many Fortune 100, FTSE100, DAX and Hang Seng Index companies and more than half of the world’s largest banks. The three firms that now form the core of Mayer Brown were all founded in the 19th century, the US portion of the

1.
Mayer Brown

Middle East
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The Middle East is a transcontinental region centered on Western Asia and Egypt. The corresponding adjective is Middle-Eastern and the noun is Middle-Easterner. The term has come into usage as a replacement of the term Near East beginning in the early 20th century. Arabs, Turks, Persians, Kurds, and Azeris constitute the largest ethnic groups in th

1.
The Temple Mount in Jerusalem

2.
Map of the Middle East (green).

3.
The Kaaba, located in Mecca, Saudi Arabia

4.
Islam is the largest religion in the Middle East. Here, Muslim men are prostrating during prayer in a mosque.

Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety

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Kievan Rus' in the 11th century

2.
Flag

3.
The Baptism of Kievans, by Klavdy Lebedev

4.
Sergius of Radonezh blessing Dmitry Donskoy in Trinity Sergius Lavra, before the Battle of Kulikovo, depicted in a painting by Ernst Lissner

Iran
–
Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline

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Cave painting in Doushe cave, Lorestan, Iran, 8th millennium BC

2.
Flag

3.
A depiction of the united Medes and Persians in Apadana, Persepolis

Cuba
–
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is a country comprising the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean where the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and it is south of both the U. S. state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Haiti, and north of Jamaica. Havana is the

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Hatuey, an early Taíno chief of Cuba.

2.
Flag

3.
Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, conquistador of Cuba.

4.
Slaves in Cuba unloading ice from Maine, c. 1832.

Iraq
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The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. The main ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds, others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, around 95% of the countrys 36 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kur

1.
Cylinder Seal, Old Babylonian Period, c.1800 BCE, hematite. The king makes an animal offering to Shamash. This seal was probably made in a workshop at Sippar.

2.
Flag

3.
Victory stele of Naram-Sin of Akkad

4.
Bill of sale of a male slave and a building in Shuruppak, Sumerian tablet, circa 2600 BCE

Obama Administration
–
The presidency of Barack Obama began at noon EST on January 20,2009, when Barack Obama was inaugurated as President of the United States, and ended on January 20,2017. Obama, a Democrat, took office as the 44th United States president following a victory over Republican John McCain in the 2008 presidential election. Four years later, in the 2012 el

1.
Barack Obama

2.
Obama's first term presidential portrait was taken during the transition period

3.
Barack Obama being sworn in as President of the United States.

4.
President Obama signs the ARRA into law on February 17, 2009 in Denver, Colorado. Vice President Joe Biden stands behind him.

Donald Rumsfeld
–
Donald Henry Don Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford and he is both the youngest and the second oldest person to have served as Secretary of Defense. Additionally, Rumsfeld was a three-term U. S, Congressman from Illinois, Director of the

1.
Rumsfeld in January 2001

2.
Rumsfeld's 1954 yearbook portrait from Princeton.

3.
Rumsfeld with his son, Nick, in the Oval Office with President Nixon, 1973

4.
Chief of Staff Rumsfeld (left) and Deputy-Chief of Staff Dick Cheney (right) meet with President Ford, April 1975

United States Department of Defense
–
The Department is the largest employer in the world, with nearly 1.3 million active duty servicemen and women as of 2016. Adding to its employees are over 801,000 National Guardsmen and Reservists from the four services and it is headquartered at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D. C. The Department of Defense is hea

1.
The Pentagon, headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense

2.
Department of Defense

3.
President Harry Truman signs the National Security Act Amendment of 1949

4.
Department of Defense organizational chart (December 2013)

United States Senate
–
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress which, along with the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, composes the legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the Senate are established by Article One of the United States Constitution. S. From 1789 until 1913, Senators were appointed by t

1.
United States Senate

2.
Seal of the U.S. Senate

3.
The Senate side of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.

4.
A typical Senate desk

Overseas Private Investment Corporation
–
The Overseas Private Investment Corporation is the United States government’s development finance institution. It mobilizes private capital to solve critical development challenges and, in doing so, advances the foreign policy of the United States. Because OPIC works with the U. S. private sector, it helps U. S. businesses gain footholds in emergin

1.
Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC)

John Roberts
–
John Glover Roberts Jr. is the 17th and current Chief Justice of the United States. He took his seat on September 29,2005, having been nominated by President George W. Bush after the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist and he has been described as having a conservative judicial philosophy in his jurisprudence. Roberts grew up in northwest Indi

1.
The Honorable John Roberts

2.
John Roberts appears in the background, as President Bush announces his nomination of Roberts for the position of Chief Justice.

3.
Roberts is sworn in as Chief Justice by Justice John Paul Stevens in the East Room of the White House, September 29, 2005.

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Barack Obama being administered the oath of office by Roberts a second time on January 21, 2009.

United States Ambassador to Iran
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Prior to 1944, Iran was not served by a United States ambassador, instead, a diplomatic minister was sent. The first ambassador was named in 1944, after the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979, the United States terminated diplomatic relations with the regime, therefore no ambassadors have since been appointed. The United States government has since then b

1.
Seal of the United States Department of State

William H. Sullivan
–
William Healy Sullivan was an American Foreign Service career officer who served as Ambassador to Laos from 1964–1969, the Philippines from 1973–1977, and Iran from 1977–1979. Sullivan was born in Cranston, Rhode Island, and graduated from Brown University as salutatorian and Class Orator of the class of 1943. His senior address was on America’s du

1.
The Iranian Shah meeting with Alfred Atherton, William Sullivan, Cyrus Vance, U.S. President Jimmy Carter, and Zbigniew Brzezinski, 1977.

Maryland's 8th congressional district
–
Marylands 8th congressional district stretches from the northern Washington, D. C. suburbs north towards the Pennsylvania border. The district is represented by Democrat Jamie Raskin. The district was created after the 1790 census in time for the 1792 election, was abolished after the 1830 census, during redistricting after the 2000 census, the Dem

2.
A delegation headed by Ms. Heather Variava (Second from Left), Director of South and Central Asia of the US Department of State visited Jaffna and met number of people. In the picture, they are in discussion with E. Saravanapavan, M.P.(Far Left), a Member of Parliament in Sri Lanka.

2.
Six Secretaries of State (Left to right: Hillary Clinton, Madeleine Albright, Henry Kissinger, current Secretary John Kerry, James Baker, and Colin Powell), at the Diplomacy Center's groundbreaking ceremony in September 2014

1.
John Quincy Adams State Drawing Room. The 1783 Treaty of Paris, ending the Revolutionary War, was signed on the desk in the foreground. The unfinished painting over the mantel depicts Benjamin Franklin and John Adams signing that treaty.